Musical Instrument: Harp
"In a certain kingdom, in a certain state ...." This is how many Russian folk tales begin, which we enjoyed listening with great pleasure in childhood. Here we met the good and evil heroes, as well as a lot of different wonderful magical things, such as the self-dressing tablecloth, the invisible hat and the self-sucking gusli, which make you dance tirelessly. Gusli is a traditional Russian folk musical instrument that has been played in Russia since time immemorial and which has been mentioned not only in fairy tales and epic epos, but also in other types of folk art, such as songs and sayings.
A humorous popular saying: “To the feast, and to the world, and to good people” - it fits this glorious instrument in the best possible way. Princely and boyar feasts, rural and urban bratchiny, weddings and funerals, pagan games and junkies - in ancient times everything was accompanied by the sound of guslians, which are now rightfully considered a symbol of our great country and an expression of the national character of the Russian people. Poets sing them in their poems, and artists display them in their paintings. In cinema, the sound of the gusli is very often used for the musical design of the enchanting beauty of Russian nature.
The story of the gusli and many interesting facts about this musical instrument can be found on our page.
Sound
The sound of gusli - this distinctive instrument captivates listeners from the first notes. His sonorous, but at the same time gentle and melodic voice in the artist’s skillful hands can portray both the bell-ringing and the murmur of the stream, and the bird singing. The soft, rich and iridescent timbre of the instrument creates a sense of peace and tranquility.
The source of the sound on the harp is stretched flexible strings, each of which is tuned to the desired pitch. The sound is extracted with fingertips or a pick.
Psaltery, having a large variety of species, differ in shape, number of strings, size and tuning. Some instruments are adjusted for chromatism, others have a diatonic pattern, which can be changed at the request of the performer. The harder the string is, the higher the sound is.
Different types of sound are used on different types of gusli, such as a pinch (pizzicato), arpeggio, saber, glissando, tremolo, and others.
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Interesting Facts
- Different nations have tools that are very similar in construction to the harp, but having different names. In Lithuania - kankles, in Latvia - kokle, in Finland - kantele. In Iran there is a santur, in Armenia a canon, in China a guqin.
- The performer on the harp is the right name for the harpist, not the guslar, as many people think.
- The Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible for his personal entertainment at the court there was a group of harpists.
- In 1654, by special order of the Patriarch of All Russia Nikon, five large loaded carts with buffoon tools, including harps, were brought to the Moscow coast - rivers and burned there with all the people. A huge fire blazed for several days.
- A virtuoso performer, composer and collector of folk songs V. Trutovsky served at the court of Empress Catherine II.
- In May 1945, the ensemble of harpists performed in Berlin on the steps of the defeated Reichstag. And also at a concert in Moscow dedicated to the Victory Parade.
- The first song recorded with notes for playing the harp was the Ukrainian folk song "Oh, go and make cherry". She was recorded by the French composer F. Bualde in St. Petersburg in 1803.
- In 2006, the St. Petersburg Guslar Club was formed in St. Petersburg, which is considered the world capital of the Guseln culture. The main goal of this organization is to actively promote the instrument, study, preserve and develop performing skills on the harp.
Design
The harp currently has several varieties that differ in shape, tuning, and number of strings, but they all have distinctive design features, including three main parts: the body, the tailpiece, and the pegs.
Housing the pterygoids include upper and lower decks, which are interconnected by a shell (frame).
On the upper deck, in the manufacture of which a resonant spruce is commonly used, there is a resonator hole, a metal plate with pins, a stand and a nut.
Resonator hole or socket increases the duration and strength of the sound.
On the pins, which are located on a metal plate, the strings are fixed.
The pegs used for tensioning the strings are made of metal and have the shape of a cylinder with a diameter of 0.7 cm and a length of 5 or 6 cm.
The stand and the threshold, which depends on the level of string height, are made of harder tree species. A brass or copper fret plate is inserted into the center of the stand and the nut.
The bottom deck is made of maple, birch, walnut, mountain ash.
Inside to the upper and lower deck, to increase the resistance and uniform distribution of sound vibrations, wooden blocks, called springs, are glued.
Varieties
The harp in the course of its evolution underwent significant modifications. To date, they are divided into four types: wing-shaped, helmet-shaped, lyre-like and stationary, which in turn are of two types: keyboard and pinch.
- Pterygus - in the people they are often called sylvate or ringing, are currently the most popular. The number of strings of the instrument varies from five to seventeen, the middle ones of which are tuned by the sounds of the diatonic scale, and the extreme upper and lower ones may sound like bourdon ones. Currently, there are twelve options for customizing this type of goose. The main method of sound extraction, which is used to perform chord accompaniment, is saber-rattling performed by the right hand. The fingers of the left hand at the same time suppress unclaimed strings. For the conduction of melodic lines, the method of plucking individual strings or tremolo is used. The pterygoids have four subspecies, which differ in size and pitch, it is piccolo, prima, alto and bass.
- Helmetse gusli - have the second name of the hymnal, in appearance resemble a helmet. The number of strings is from ten to twenty six. The instrument is played with both hands, the right plays the melody, the left harmonic accompaniment. The main tricks of the game is plucking strings and tremolo.
- Lyre-like Gusli - the main difference of this type of gusl is the presence of the so-called playing window, with the help of which the performer manipulates the strings: he suppresses unnecessary or tweaks additional sounds.
- Stationary keyboard and plucked harps, which are also called academic or concert, have a chromatic scale.
Keyboard gusli have a range that is from 4 to 6 octaves, the strings are stretched in the same plane and their number can be from 49 to 66. On this instrument a mechanical system is installed with twelve keys like a piano, when pressed, only the strings open sound. The main method of performance is arpeggio from lower to upper sounds.
Ship harp represent a metal frame with strings stretched on it, located in two levels. The frame is placed in the body, standing on wooden legs. The range of sounds of this instrument is equal to the range of keyboard gusl. Quite a difficult sound extraction on these harps, performed by the right and left hand, allows you to perform works of varying complexity.
Application
Today, many represent the harp as an archaic instrument of buffoons. However, this is not at all the case; the harp has long become a professional stage instrument with a luxurious unique sound. At the present time in each folk orchestra there is a set of gusli: keyboard and table-shaped plucked.
In addition to orchestral practice, the instrument is actively used as a solo, ensemble, as well as in musical groups of various styles, among them: folk, jazz and even rock. Bands in which musicians play only harps are very popular with listeners. Academic music, melodic declamation, spiritual poems, folk tunes and songs are a small list of musical genres that are played on the instrument. Unfortunately, harps for playing music in everyday life is now almost not used.
The repertoire plan for the instrument is very diverse. Musical numbers of folklore character, as well as transcriptions of works by the greatest composers of foreign and Russian classics: G. Percell, G. Telemann, A. Vivaldi, G. Handel, A. Corelli, K. Gluka, I. S. Bach, V. Mozart, J. Haydn, L. Couperin, C. Debussy, M.I. Glinka, A. Borodin, PI Tchaikovsky, A. Lyadov, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M. Mussorgsky, I. Stravinsky and others.
Among contemporary composers who composed specifically for the harp and left many remarkable original works, I would like to especially mention V. Gorodovskaya, E. Derbenko A. Dunaevskaya, V. Malyarova, O. Meremkulova, D. Lokshin and V. Boyashova, E. Synodskaya and K. Shakhanova.
Performers
Artists on the harp in ancient Russia were very honored, they were treated with great respect. At the present time, in connection with a surge of interest in the origins of Russian national musical culture, the work of musicians-musicians is again of great interest. This is evidenced by the fact that the popularity of gusli is growing every year, and with it the fullness of concert halls, in which the unique old Russian instrument sounds.
There are quite a few performers who today captivate the hearts of listeners, here are the names of some of them:
L. Muravyova, G. Malyarova, D. Volkov, N. Dyachenko, T. Kostyuchkova, T. Kiseleva, E. Kostina, M. Belyaev, P. Lukoyanov, I. Akhromeev, A. Baikalets, V. Ivanov, D. Paramonov, E. Strelnikov, K. Shakhanov, S. Starostin and many others.
Speaking about the musicians-harpists, who at the present time conquer not only domestic, but also foreign listeners with their creativity, it is necessary to note the real enthusiasts who laid the foundation of the modern school of harp playing, V. Povetkin and O. Smolensky. N. Golosov, F. Artamonov, A. Prokhorov, P. Shalimov, S. Golovoshkin, M. Vasilyev, A. Belova, V. Kononov, V. Tikhonov became followers and worthy successors of their affairs, who had connected with the harp all their lives. , D. Lokshin, V. Trifonov, V. Surikov, V. Belyavsky, L. Basurmanova, Y. Strelnikov, E. Komarnitskaya, Vladimir Povetkin and many others who through their creativity and students spread the love of the guslia throughout our vast Motherland .
Story
The history of Gusli, one of the most ancient instruments, has its roots in ancient times. The beginning of their origin as well as of all stringed instruments was connected with the bowstring of the hunting bow, which, under strong tension, made a pleasant sound to the human ear. Then the string, acting as a string, was attached to the body, which had a cavity inside and served as a resonator. Thereby, the simplest musical instrument was obtained, which, undoubtedly, subsequently evolved and accordingly changed. The tool, similar to guslyam, is found in many nationalities and has a variety of names. There is an assumption that among the Slavs the name of the instrument is associated with the very sounding string, which in olden times was called "gusla".
The fact that the psaltery is known in Russia from time immemorial is not in doubt, but one of the first, indirect sources that contain images of the instrument are manuscripts relating to the second century of our era, as well as drawings in ancient temples. Then, more reliably about the harp we learn in the writings of the Byzantines, dating back to the end of the sixth millennium, in which they express their surprise at the skillful game of Rus on instruments similar to kithary. And only from the middle of the 20th century, thanks to the findings of scientific archaeological expeditions carried out in the area of the ancient Russian cities of Novgorod and Pskov, we began to have an idea about the harps, where our distant ancestors played music.
The tool in Russia was unusually claimed and loved. To his sounds, fairy tales were told, sang songs, danced, danced and even fought, because fist fights are very popular entertainment among the Russian people. Gusli sounded everywhere: in peasant huts, on market squares and in royal chambers. The secrets of making and the art of performance were passed down from generation to generation. Among the variety of tool types, the most common were pterygoid, helmet-shaped and trapezoid-shaped.
The harp was often called "spring" and "ringing". They were made of tree species that were distinguished by the best resonator properties: spruce or maple-sycamore. And the strings, the number of which was also very different, stretched metal, it was they who gave the gusla a special bright sound.
From the 15th to the 17th century, funny buffoon people enjoyed great popularity among the population on Russian soil. They earned that traveling to villages and cities, entertained people, arranging various entertainment performances. For the sound of their performances, they used various folk musical instruments, including the harp. In the middle of the 17th century, hard times came for the buffoons, who often laughed at secular and church authorities. They were sent into exile and even executed, and their tools, including the harp, were collected and destroyed. Only after some time had passed when Peter I came to power, the persecution ended, and the prohibitions were lifted. However, in Russia, transformations began in a new European way, including in the field of music-making. In the circles of the nobility, European instruments are in vogue: the harp, then the harpsichord. Only the lower class of the townspeople and peasants continue to have fun with the familiar sound of their favorite guslias. And the instrument fans did not yield, constantly transforming the instrument. During the reign of Catherine II, the masters constructed table-shaped gusli, which were superior in sound to the harpsichord at that time. The performers improved the technique of performance, which allows the performance of the works of Italian composers on the harp: opera arias and partitas.
Gusli in their various forms continue to exist actively until the middle of the 19th century and after a slight calm, they are revived again. On the initiative and convincing request of the Russian enthusiast, creator of the "Great Russian Orchestra" of folk instruments V. Andreev, as well as his associates N. Privalov and O. Smolensky, the chromatic keyboard harp and then a whole family of plucked gusls consisting of piccolo were constructed by the musical master Fomin , primo, viola and bass. These instruments, included in the composition of the orchestra, decorated it with a unique flavor of a guzelny sound.
Harp - a unique ancient instrument, symbolizing our Fatherland, the harmony of the world and Being. Gusli have always been an integral part of Russian culture, the interest in which is very actively traced in recent times. The beautiful iridescent voice of the gusley collects full concert halls and causes sincere admiration of listeners of all ages, which speaks of the growing popularity of this native, but unfairly forgotten instrument.
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